Some quick facts from Teluk Meranti:
1. Kids love to play skateboards (and they are good)
2. You can surf on the river (yes, it is a river), but it is seasonal
3. Gasoline is sold in plastic bottles, IDR 15.000 a bottle (about 1,5 litre)
4. There is only one road there which is still less than five years old (a dirt road)
5. Electricity is only available in the evening until early morning (and no fridge)
6. People are friendly (they took me around and invited me to stay in their houses)
7. Food are generally spicy (they even added chillies to instant noodle)
8. The air is very dry, you tend to get thirsty all the time (so drink more water)
9. Smoke from forest fire somewhere across the river is visible almost everyday

Oh, and they speak a specific Malay dialect to each other. Not exactly Malay, but also not Minang, not Batak, not Padang, … I don’t know. But fortunately they also speak Bahasa Indonesia :-)